


Your Heart For Mine

by Clocksmith



Category: Kingdom Hearts, Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Kingdom Hearts AU, Traverse Town (Kingdom Hearts)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-06
Updated: 2018-04-06
Packaged: 2019-04-19 08:01:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14232855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clocksmith/pseuds/Clocksmith
Summary: The hands of dark giants rake through the burning sky, breaking the horizon down to splinters. Errant rain clouds bleed back into the black gashes that their claws leave behind as the final remnants of rain fall past the places where our dorm courtyard used to be. Pinprick yellow eyes blink in the black below, staring. Searching. I see them looking up to us with a hunger I did not know could exist. There are screams in the far distance as plumes of that same yellow and black burst somewhere out of sight, gorging on what was once Arcadia Bay.





	Your Heart For Mine

**Author's Note:**

> Given the fact that Final Fantasy clearly exists in the Life is Strange universe, this takes place in an Arcadia Bay that exists as a world within the Kingdom Hearts universe. As such, Square Enix and Disney do not exist in this Arcadia Bay as they do in canon.

_The hands of dark giants rake through the burning sky, breaking the horizon down to splinters. Errant rain clouds bleed back into the black gashes that their claws leave behind as the final remnants of rain fall past the places where our dorm courtyard used to be._

_Raindrops fall forever into the darkness._

“ _Hold on!”_

_Please._

_Please hold on. Don’t let go._

“ _I’m slipping!”_

_The ground is sinking, dipping into pitch black. Blackness crawls towards us, creeping up the dormitory. Into every windows, seeping between every brick and crack. It is everywhere._

_Shadows are everywhere. Everyone is gone._

_Or maybe they’re one and the same? I can’t tell. I don’t have time to look._

_Kate looks up to me, her hands grasping at my wrist. The dorm roof is cold and wet against my chest, seeping through all of my clothes, into my skin. My muscles are tearing apart and my skin is stretching. I can’t hold on._

_I can’t let her go._

_Pinprick yellow eyes blink in the black below, staring. Searching. I see them looking up to us with a hunger I did not know could exist. There are screams in the far distance as plumes of that same yellow and black burst somewhere out of sight, gorging on what was once Arcadia Bay._

_Tendrils and wings and eyes exist everywhere. Marching from the sea or burrowing up from deep beneath the ground before the ground splits apart like wafer. Then there are more beneath and they are climbing. Without the Earth crumbling there is no sound._

_There is no place left for thunder and lightning. Things such as this cannot exist with the shadows here._

_There is only air and cold and a spreading silence. They devour everything else._

_My ribs hurt. Something cracked as I leapt towards the edge of the roof. My chest scraped harshly against the concrete and my shoulder moved too fast as I caught hold of Kate’s hand._

_The rain has ended, the clouds swallowed by something that finds them too small to feel full. The water is dripping down from me to Kate and my hands are frozen, too cold to even imagine moving. So I keep them locked around Kate’s wrists._

“ _I’m not letting go!” Not after I talked you back. Not after time just… stopped for me. Not after everything you’ve gone through._

_I. Will. Not. Let. You. Fall._

_Kate Marsh, you are not falling from this roof._

_At the same time I am flat against the edge, my breasts forced painfully into the concrete brim of the roof. My legs locked into the inside so that we don’t go over. My arms are hung over the side and there is nothing to pull me back._

_I can’t pull her up. I can’t pull us back._

_I will not let go._

_Black snowflakes are rising. Cold ash, drifting towards my face and up to the sky. A burning nothingness fills the air, foul and empty at the same time._

_Kate is looking past me, into the sky. Her eyes are wide, tears forming and falling with the last raindrops. They too fall towards me, rising past me._

“ _Max! Max, the sky!”_

_I can’t turn around. I dare not even try if it means it is the last time I see Kate. I focus on her._

“ _What’s wrong?”_

“ _Oh God...” Her lips are quivering with prayers waiting to be said. But there’s nothing she can say. “The sky is broken. Max, the sky is broken! It’s burning!”_

_It’s not a metaphor. I cannot see but I know she is being literal._

_That horrifies me more than anything else._

“ _What do you mean? “I ask desperately ask. “I can’t see!”_

_Suddenly, my labor becomes easier. Kate is lighter and my efforts to pull are lessened. She drifts towards me and I pull, ignoring my muscles as they scream and wail. My own body feels lighter, less crushed into the concrete._

_I start to rise._

_I don’t let go. I don’t think I even can. There’s so much that feels wrong in my hand._

“ _Max!”_

_As Kate drifts up with me, I force myself to fall back onto the flat of the roof. She falls with me, our bodies only barely heavy enough to crash down to the surface. Without even thinking I pull her close into a tight embrace._

_I start to fall back towards the sky but Kate is quick to pull us away from the edge of the roof. She pulls us away until my back hits a pipe. Part of the plumbing or ventilation. I’m not sure it even matters which is which any more. It runs into the solid surface of the roof and down into the building below._

_Kate wraps our arms around it. As my legs begin to pulls away from me I register everything that she’s doing and hold on for dear life._

_I risk turning my head towards the sky._

_There’s broiling mass of rubble and darkness, pulling anything and everything into the epicenter. Benches and trash and people and cars. Whales and ships and buildings. Everything falls upwards towards it, vanishing into the burning black. A hole in the sky so vast that there is more of it than there is of the sky._

“ _Fuck. Fuck!”_

_What do we do? What the fuck do we do?!_

_Kate is muttering under breath, quickly and decisively. Words I’m sure she knows by heart at this point. I don’t pray but I know the sounds you hear when someone does. Requests for forgiveness and pleas for mercy._

_We’re going to die._

_Crunch. Shatter. There are noises coming from the building below. Glass and mortar flies past the edge of the roof, sprinkling in violent flocks towards the breach in the sky. The dorms jut to one side as a final noise announces that, yes, this building is as utterly fucked as we are._

_Kate and I hold tight to the piping of the building. The building no longer holds tight to the ground. Everything falls up, spearing towards the darkness._

“ _Kate!”_

_There’s nothing else that I can even do. I reach out my hand, begging time to take a step back. Pleading with whatever fucking force gave me my powers in the first place._

_Time doesn’t listen._

_Time is gone. There’s nothing to pull or twist. There’s no force stopping me from doing what I can do. There’s just… nothing there to tamper with._

_No time._

_We’re out of time._

_I don’t let go of Kate. I don’t let go of the pipe but I also feel something holding onto me. Kate manages to wrap her arms around me, pulling herself in close as we both huddle against a flimsy roll of metal._

_The pipe itself bends and shifts. The surface beneath us is splitting as the system buried with the building begins to force itself out. The dorms are breaking apart, revealing the insides as furniture burst out into the open and into the void._

_I can’t let go._

_I can’t let go._

_Kate whispers into my ear through the drumming silence. “We need to let go.”_

_No. No we fucking don’t._

_I can’t let go._

_We…_

_Kate takes her hands away from the pipe and devotes herself to me. Her hands reach around to my back and she pulls my chest into her. She holds me tight as I keep one hand against the pipe._

_I…_

_Agree._

_I agree. We need to let go. We’re going. We’re already gone at this point._

“ _We need to let go,” I repeat, empty._

_I pull Kate in tighter with one hand, still keep my other steady. I can feel myself shaking against Kate. Or maybe we’re shaking into each other._

“ _But I won’t let you go alone,” Kate says, resolute._

_I see the darkness approaching, burning cold and endless. I give all my attention to Kate. I manage to smile. I pull my other arms into the hug, embracing Kate completely._

_Stone and metal and glass hit our unguarded bodies as we spin into the nothingness._

_I rest my head into her shoulders as Kate does the same to me._

_I could say many things. I could say anything at all with the full knowledge that they will be the final words I ever say. I could be cool or brilliant or smart. I could apologize._

_I say “Thank you.” instead._

_We hit the dark and it fills my lungs. It is raw, it is thick. I cannot breathe. I cannot scream. I cannot feel anything beyond the beating of Kate’s heart against my own. We feel warm, together in this place._

_There is nothing else._

_I can only close my eyes._

 

*** * *** _  
_

 

There is only black and weight.

My eyes feel too heavy for their own good. My chest burns. My arms burn. I cannot feel my wrists. I become increasingly aware that various parts of my body actually exist and are waiting for instructions.

I swallow the resting bile in my throat and slowly open my eyes.

The ceiling is not unpleasant to look it but it is not my immediate concern. A brief shift of my neck reveals a room decked mostly in green wood and beige wallpaper. A pleasant light emanates from the ceiling, filtered through bulbs of frosted glass.

I am warm. Not uncomfortably so, yet I feel the need to be outside. Moving, anywhere but where it is I am right now. I feel… urgent. I need to do something. I was doing…

I was…

I sit bolt upright. There’s pain from somewhere in my body but I don’t listen. I don’t care. “Kate!”

My eyes are wide now. I’m awake and alert. I’m scared and I’m angry and I can’t breathe air through my lungs fast enough. Each gulp of air needs more and more and I can’t-

“Easy there, kupo.”

There a tap to my shoulder and I wince away, swatting away at the sound before I realize it was a voice. There’s a new twinge of pain and this time I can’t ignore it.

“See? You silly thing, kupo. You’re going to hurt yourself.”

I don’t know who I expected to see but it isn’t that person. At all. It’s not even a person, per say. It’s a fluffy… thing. A fluffy white thing with a big red nose and a pom-pom on top of its head. Little leathery wings shift at its back and seem far too small to support… whatever it is.

What the fuck?

I’m not sure if I was going to scream at it, reach out to touch it or something else entirely. I don’t move in a way that pleases it.

“No, kupo! Bad!” it screams, pointing violently between me and the bed. A bed that I am now very aware of being inside. “Lie down! You’re not finished.”

I don’t have it in me to refuse. I let the little monster tell me what to do and heave a sigh of relief when my head hits a pillow. My pillow, I suppose.

“Where am I?” I can still talk though. “Where… I don’t know what-” I don’t know where I am “I was with someone when-”

“Shh,” the little thing says. “First we get you dressed, kupo. Then we get to the questions.”

Clothes? I’m already wearing my-

No, I’m not. I’m naked.

I don’t even need to look. Under the covers there’s only the luscious fabric of the quilt and nothing else.

“Why am I naked?”

“Because your clothes were wet, kupo.”

I’m so tired. I can’t even find it in me to question the claim. It was raining… wasn’t it?

“Why do you keep saying that?”

“Saying what, kupo?”

“That! Kupo!”

“That’s not very _polite_ thing to ask a moogle, kupo!”

The ‘moogle’ throws something at my face. I realize seconds later that it is, in fact, my Wonder Woman underwear.

“And that is not how you use ‘kupo’, kupo!”

It flutters into the air and hangs over my bed. It gently sets down the rest of my clothes, all neatly folded and, by the looks of it, ironed. Even from here, I can smell a pleasant aroma of spice and lemon from the fabric.

Even my shoes look cleaner.

“Now, sit up _slowly,_ kupo. We don’t want you feeling dizzy.”

I do. Admittedly, the action is more tiring that it was a few moments ago. My head feels fuzzy and things haven’t looked quite right since I sat up the first time. I can’t focus straight and I kind of want to throw up.

Once I am sat up like a competent human being, the creature taps my pile of clothes.

“Now get yourself dressed, kupo. Watch your ribs and don’t move your right arm. I’ll wait outside, kupo.”

“If I can’t move my arm then how do I get my bra on?”

“Very carefully, kupo.”

I do. Once I start, moving is sluggish and unwelcome.

But eventually all my clothes are back on my body, bra included. In the process of dressing myself I also realize I have a significant layer of bandages around my wrists and hands. They’re tight, keeping my fingers in place and my muscles contained.

Good thing too. I was pulling on my jeans and my wrists felt like they were going to pop out of their sockets.

Ten minutes it took me to get fully dressed.

“You done, kupo? I’ve brought some water.”

“Yeah,” I call back, pushing myself to stand up.

It doesn’t quite work so I just reside myself to sitting on the bed.

The moogle comes back into the room, carrying a little tray with a glass of water.

“Here’s the water!”

I readily take it, not quite sure how I didn’t realize I was thirsty. The water is gone quickly and there’s a patient silence as I hand the glass back. The little moogle just looks at me, sadly.

No, not sadly. There’s something worse than sadness there. Something weightier. That thing you always dread when you see it written over someone’s face. Because you know it can only be something bad.

I realize it’s waiting for me to talk first.

“Where am I?” I ask.

“This place is called Traverse Town, kupo. It’s a safe place for people who need shelter. When a world is broken and the people who live there are lost, those lucky enough to survive can find their way here. Your world… it fell to the darkness, didn’t it, kupo?”

That… seems to be about the only way to describe it.

“I… guess so. There were...”

I don’t finish. I can’t.

Too many images of things I can’t quite remember shifts across the back of my mind and I don’t want them to be there. It’s an awful mix of black and burning and yellow. Screaming and ripping. Pain. Kate.

Kate

“I was with someone! When everything...” When everything, what? _Fell?_ The one words seems sorely fucking inadequate. It wasn’t… it was… “I was with someone. When everything ended.”

Ended.

Everything… ended.

Everything's gone.

I’m not sure where to begin with that. Where the fuck do you even start to begin with that?! I saw everything turn to absolute shit. Everything. _Fucking everything!_ Every single fucking thing I could possibly care about was ripped apart and-

“Hey,” the moogle says, pulling me into a tiny hug. “Everything with time, kupo. You’re okay.”

I’m suddenly tired. I’m suddenly so very, very tired. I can’t even find the energy to cry. What use would crying do? What would anything achieve...

“Everything’s gone...”

“Not everything, kupo. Your friend?”

“Yes… yes! Her name’s Kate.”

I can’t focus on one thing. My head is shifting from one disaster to another and I can’t concentrate. I can’t move, I can’t think properly. Kate.

_Kate._

I can focus on Kate.

“When we found you, you were with someone. She is still sleeping.” Very quickly, it puts the tray down and pulls something from it that I hadn’t noticed. The item unfurls, dropping until I can see the whole. It’s a golden necklace.

With a cross at the end.

“She was wearing this around her neck, kupo. I don’t recognize the symbol, so it must be unique, right, kupo?”

It’s Kate’s cross.

I reach out and grab it, just to be sure. I know there are thousands of people who wear a cross. I know it’s nothing special in terms of design or material but I’ve seen Kate wear this every single day since the day we met and I need this to be her I need her to be okay I need to-

I need to know she is okay.

I tentatively ask, “Is she okay?”

“She is still sleeping, kupo. She needs more time to rest. But she will be good, kupo.”

“You’re sure?”

“A lot of people come here, kupo.” There was that sadness again. That heaviness. Max supposed she would know that heaviness, soon enough. “We… know what to look out for, kupo. She has a bright heart.”

Everything with time.

“Can I see her?”

 

*** * ***

 

Apparently, the moogle is called Mimi. She likes my doe t-shirt and thinks the patterns on my underwear are pretty cool. I have confirmed that she does not know what Wonder Woman is. She specializes in the washing and repairing of fabric.

I’m still not sure I understand what a moogle is but I feel I understand Mimi a little better. It’s all a bit too Zelda for me to take in right now. Or maybe Tolkieny if I squint ? Or...

It’s weird. It’s strange.

It’s unbelievable.

It helps.

Seeing Kate brings all of that reeling back to a standstill.

I inch towards the bed, much like the one I woke up in. She’s under the covers with her arms draped across the top, her breathing steady. Her face is serene and calm and absolutely nothing compared the face I saw on the roof.

I can imagine her happy. I can imagine her being happy with herself.

I wonder if that will be the same when she wakes up?

“When you say Kate’s asleep...”

Mimi is quick to answer. “I mean asleep, kupo. Just snoozing, like you. She will wake up soon.”

“Is there a reason she’s still asleep?”

I’m not sure it should even matter. I just…

I want to know she’s okay. I need to know.

“You’re heart is sad.”

… Thanks a lot, Mimi.

“Thanks?”

“No kupo! You misunderstand.” Mimi pas my shoulder. I’m not sure she understands what I’m misunderstanding. “Every heart is different. Some hearts belong in the light and some hearts belong in the dark, kupo. Your heart sits nicely in the middle. But the darkness can prey on sadness, kupo.”

… Oh.

“Your friend has a very sad heart too. But you both had happy hearts for each other, kupo! It kept the darkness away long enough for you both to get here. She just needs longer to recover.”

“So… she gave up more of her heart for me?”

“Nothing so sad, kupo. Her heart cares for your heart and you are...” Mimi seems to think on it. “Her friend? Lady friend?”

“… Yes.”

I like both of those answers for very different reasons. Mimi does not question my lack of common social interaction.

Thanks, Mimi.

“You are close, kupo,” she settles on. “Her heart careD for you and it made sure you were safe. Your heart cared for her and made sure to keep her safe. If you were both alone you might not have made it here. But you were not alone, so you are both here, kupo.”

“But Kate’s heart worked overtime?”

“Maybe, kupo.”

I haven’t played a lot of Zelda recently but this still feels very Legend of Zelda. Or any of the other fantasy games I’ve played at some point in my life. Though, all this seems a little too modern for Zelda...

If anything, it all feels a bit like the new My Little Pony. Love and friendship saving the day…

...

I shouldn’t compare. It likely isn’t going to help.

But… Kate helped me to get here. I might not even be alive at all if it weren’t for Kate. How nice a person do you have to be to still save someone’s life, even when you’re not conscious of it?

Hella nice, that’s how much. Even if I did the same, she’s still asleep. That means she lost more, right? She needs a bit longer to recover.

Mimi pulls me over a chair and sits it next to Kate’s bed. I fall into the chair harder than I would have liked but I’m not going to complain. I’m here. I’m alive.

I’m with Kate.

There are plenty of things to be thankful for.

“How long till she wakes up?”

“A few hours at most, kupo. She’s just sleepy,” Mimi repeats for me again.

It might have settled in a little easier this time.

Kate is sleepy. I can deal with sleepy.

I make myself comfortable. I could go walking or something, I suppose. I could leave this room and see if there’s anything else to see in the mean time. I could follow Mimi and see what’s what.

I can do all those things with Kate once she wakes up. We can find out about all of this… all this weird moogle magical heart bullshit together.

I don’t know whether that makes me selfish or not. Am I waiting here for Kate so she doesn’t wake up alone like me? Or am I waiting until she wakes up so I don’t have to go it alone from here. What are we going to do once she does wake up? Do we just live in this place? Does Mimi have some hot contacts? She did say that people came here all the time…

There must be something in place for people like us. Right?

I hope so.

I fall back further into the chair, falling beyond comfy into slumped. My heads falls against the head rest and I consider closing my eyes and falling asleep again. I’d still be here when Kate wakes up. She’d know she isn’t alone.

It would stop me thinking too much.

I pull up my hands until my palms are rubbing hard into the sockets. It doesn’t so much push the sleep from my eyes as it does embed it further into me. Even if I had chosen to walk around instead of wait for Kate, I wouldn’t have been up for it.

I pull my hands away and just stare at them for a moment.

Can I still do the thing?

I take it a deep breathe and hold my hand forward, grasping the seconds as they tick by.

I pull.

Everything stops, for the slightest moment. The world ceases to move and it all comes to an inelegant halt. The seconds fall back in step, traveling back through the stream and into the top of the hourglass. It all reverses.

As hard as I try, I struggle to even keep those seconds in place.

I let go and time marches forward. Waiting for me.

I can’t handle anything more. My grip doesn’t last. Regardless, I let my head fall back once more and take it in.

Time travel. Magic moogles. Hearts.

Darkness.

End of the world and all the shit that comes with it.

This is too much to deal with. I’m not even sure where to begin. Where do you even begin?

...

And I’ve come full circle. I might as well go over everything else I thought about in the last ten minutes. Why not? Got all the time in the world to do it.

That’s something, isn’t it? A time traveling hipster and a Christian girl with a big heart. Those are all the super powers you need in a magical place with magical… things. Magical things.

I don’t know. I’m not that kind of hero.

I’m not _any_ kind of hero.

I guess I’ll just need to wait and see. We both will.

I lazily reach does and rest my hand onto Kate’s. Like mine, it is covered in a few bandages but her upper body is otherwise free from cuts or bruising. Not that I’ve checked my reflection to compare.

I briefly touch a place on my cheek that feels tender and surmise that, yes, it is likely a little bruised. Common sense would have had me checking my own body for injuries but other things seemed infinitely more important at the time. Kate’s well-being aside, getting my clothes on was definitely a high priority.

Minutes pass. I’m not sure how many but they definitely go by. Perhaps it really has been an hour spent just looking at Kate, waiting for her to wake up. I stopped counting.

I absently stroke the flesh of her knuckles and I tense when her eyes flicker at my touch, color returning to her cheeks.

Life returns to her. Her heart is complete.

Kate opens her eyes.


End file.
